The beat goes on for South Carolina baseball, and this one sounded exactly the same as last week.

Just four days after finishing an embarrassing home sweep where the Gamecocks were outscored 39-8 by Florida at Founders Park, South Carolina was once again non-competitive in SEC action in the series opener at Auburn.

Auburn blasted South Carolina 24-2 at Plainsman Park in run-rule fashion, scoring five runs in the second inning and seven in the third to end any semblance of a contest early and hand the Gamecocks their fifth straight conference defeat.

Just four days after losing a game 22-3 in the program’s heaviest defeat since 1997, South Carolina (26-24, 5-20 SEC) nearly made it even worse with another meltdown on the mound. Nathan Hall’s RBI double actually gave the visitors a lead in the first inning, but Auburn (34-15, 14-11 SEC) ripped off a staggering 24 unanswered runs in the space of four innings starting in the second inning.

South Carolina starter Brandon Stone fired a 10-pitch first inning but was on the wrong end of a nightmare second inning, as the Tigers put up five runs. Stone ended up getting tagged for eight runs across the second and third inning, giving up one home run, hitting three batters and walking one with eight hits wrapped around the free passes.

At that point the game was functionally over, but it continued to deteriorate. A combination of Ryder Garino, Tyler Pitzer and Cooper Parks tried to stop the bleeding, but there was no slowing down the freight train of the Auburn offense.

The Tigers pounded out five home runs including at least one in four consecutive innings, with 10 different players recording at least one hit and eight driving in at least one run. Two more bases loaded free passes followed by a grand slam in the fifth inning put the exclamation point on it, confirming another embarrassing defeat.

Prior to this week, South Carolina had not lost a game by more than 19 runs since 1997.

Now it has done so twice in four days, with two more games against the Tigers on the horizon the rest of the weekend.

*******************************************************************************************

Looking to continue the conversation? Join us on the insider's forum to talk all things South Carolina baseball